Recent Reading - Ayrton Senna, The Whole Story

I just finished reading Ayrton Senna, The Whole Story by Christopher Hilton last night. I never was a great fan of Ayrton Senna, I was always more of a Nigel Mansell fan. This book gave me a new appreciation of Senna because it told not only of his natural talent, but also of his determination and (you wouldn't guess it from the years at McLaren with Prost) teamork. Before Schumacher worked with Ferrari to develop a wonderful racing machine, Senna did so with McLaren. He had the ability to gel the team around him and create success just as Schumacher did later. Senna had a much misunderstood personality; it was split into one that was displayed at the track and one displayed away from the track. I wonder how much of this is the same with Schumacher?

As I read this, it struck me how similar Senna's death was to Dale Earnhardt's death. Both died in tragic accidents on the track from head injuries. Unfortunately, both tragic accidents became the subject of controversy, with various figures around the sports disparaged in the press. On a more positive note, both deaths forced the respective sanctioning bodies to improve race safety after the deaths of less famous drivers failed to spark safety initiatives.

I also enjoyed reading about how much a decent person Senna was away from the racetrack. He was not only spiritual and religous, he cared about the disadvantaged in his home country of Brazil and worked to help them. He did this not to draw attention to himself, but because it was the right and decent thing to do. How similar this is to great racers such as Earnhardt and Schumacher, who did the same thing, often under the radar.


Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net